Between June
21st and 25th, 1920, Rotary met in Atlantic City, New Jersey and thus the
first city outside of our
First 100
hosted the Rotary Convention. 664 Clubs were represented with a total
registration of 7,213.
Visitors were welcomed to Atlantic City by Charles H Godfrey of the host
Rotary Club and President Adams' post-war address quoted Isaiah's
message to the Jews - "And thou shalt be called the repairer of the
breach; the restorer of paths to dwell in." Gundaker's Publicity
Committee offered a vision of Yesterday - an Idea; Today - a Reality;
tomorrow - a Vision.
Only
Paul Harris' words were present at the 1920 Convention. "The
'service way' out of difficulties is the constructive way, therefore
Rotary has ever been constructive." He ended with the Golden
Rule of "All things whatsoever ye would that man should do unto
you, do ye even so unto them". |
This Golden
Rule was the 11th duty for Rotary's Code of Ethics at the time.
Ches Perry
embarked on a tour of Britain in 1920 in preparation for the first
overseas Convention to be held in Scotland the following year. According
to Estes Snedecor, the Edinburgh Convention had been planned over
many, many years.
Perry also reported an interesting point that could have been written in
2002: "The clubs which I visited, and perhaps others, should make
it a point to add to their membership some worthy younger business and
professional men so that the average age may be brought down as it now
appears rather high in most cases".
Calum Thomson |
